Egoitz Etxebeste Aduriz Ana Galarraga Aiestaran

Text written in Basque and translated automatically by Elia without any subsequent editing. SEE ORIGINAL

For being a woman

Egoitz Etxebeste Aduriz Ana Galarraga Aiestaran

American neuroscientist Ben Barres (1954-2017) was the first known trans scientist in his country. At birth, she was called Barbara and lived as a woman until 2013. So he took Ben's name.

When she was named Barbara, she encountered greater obstacles in her scientific career than her male colleagues. For example, he once competed for a fellowship against a male cis partner, and although he had already published six articles, and that man had only one, the fellowship was awarded to the man.

The clearest evidence of sexism that also prevails in science, however, was that Ben was working by name. In a seminar he had to give a lecture and, after finishing it, a listener said: “Ben has given an excellent speech, his work is much better than that of his sister Barbara.” There was only one difference between Ben and Barbara: the first was for a man, and they valued him according to this, and the other for a woman, and by the mere fact of being a woman, it seemed worse to them.

Ben Barres always faced those who denied the existence of sexual and gender biases in science and worked hard to denounce and dismantle them. It promoted the integration of people at risk of being undervalued, not only because of their sex and gender, but also because of their ethnicity, social status, origin or any other trait, establishing specific measures in favor of diversity.

However, a single person, however exemplary, is not enough to suppress practices and mentalities that have been built and consolidated over the centuries. That is why the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) and related initiatives are still so necessary.

This year, on February 11, the Women in Science alliance has published a manifesto in which it expresses its firm commitment to address inequalities from an intersectional and root perspective. You can read it on the inner pages. Elhuyar joins the manifesto and we invite you to join us as a reader.